
CS371p Fall 2018: Dara Cline
What did you do this past week?
This past week, I basically prepared for the first week of school to begin. I have developed a hobby in West Coast Swing which, for those of you that don’t know, is a social dance that is done with a partner and can be done to many different genres of music, whether it be swing, blues, or contemporary (i.e. Pop or EDM) music. It’s really fun and is a great stress reliever. I definitely recommend trying out any form of social dancing really, not just West Coast Swing. I also got to see a couple of old friends that aren’t usually in town.
What’s in your way?
The only thing that is in my way right now is my bad habit of procrastination. We’re off to a great start regarding that I guess. However, I was listening to the YouTuber KevOnStage earlier today (I’ll link it here in case anyone wants to listen to the rest of the video. It gets loud sometimes, so headphone users, beware!), and he said something that really stuck with me and has motivated me to change the way I look at my own productivity and will power: “Start before you’re ready…. Don’t wait until your body tells you it’s ready.” He was talking about working out in the video, but I think this can be applied to work ethic in school, as well. That statement really resonated with me because typically it is very difficult for me to convince myself to start doing work, but once I start doing it, I am generally very productive. If I can get over that hurdle of convincing myself to start, then the road will be a lot easier. I plan to take this advice with me throughout this school and hope to better myself in the process.
What will you do next week?
I plan to be on top of the readings for this class as I think they will be very helpful throughout the semester as well as be on top of the work for my classes. Generally, I plan to try to be more productive and efficient with the way I get my work done.
What are your expectations of the class?
I think that there are a lot of useful things to be learned in this course, and I think it should pretty manageable as long as you manage your time wisely and start the projects early. I saw one post for a previous that said that it wasn’t necessarily that the projects were hard; it was more that the test cases take a lot of time to write up. I think I should be able to manage that.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My tip-of-the-week is mostly for myself, but it can also be for anyone else who needs to hear it. I have a bad habit of procrastinating because when I have to do something, I wait for myself to feel like doing it rather than just doing it anyway. And with that said, here is my tip: don’t wait until you feel like doing something to start it. I’m not always going to feel like doing something right away, even if it is something I enjoy doing. If you can keep that mindset throughout the semester, it will help you tremendously. You’ll be one step closer to where you want to be, and it will be that much easier to achieve those goals later in your career.